


The Dinner Guest

by mcgarrygirl78



Series: Feels Like Heaven [51]
Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 15:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8630260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: “We do our best to separate work from personal, and we want to have our foundation nice and strong before too many people start finding out.”





	

“Hi there.”

“Hey.” Melinda looked up from her computer. “The tox report on Candice Daniels isn't back yet and I haven’t even sliced into the two John Does from the park but I am running prints through AFIS to see if we get lucky. One also has some tattoos so that might help with missing persons. But we’re a little behind down here; people are out with that stomach bug going around.”

“I have three people out upstairs as well. I'm just crossing my fingers one of the germ factories at daycare doesn’t pass it to Noah who would surely pass it to me. But I didn’t come down to bother you about work.”

“You didn’t?” Melinda looked up from her computer again. There were still no hits on the fingerprints but there were a lot more people to go through. She might try facial recognition with the DMV next but that was rarely successful with dead faces.

“I brought lunch.” Liv held up a plastic bag. “I'm sure you could use a break.”

“Understatement. The city really expects me to do all of this plus go back and triple check Rudnick’s paperwork. God knows how many people have grounds for appeals because of that. I'm trying not to be bitter.”

“It causes wrinkles, Melinda.”

“Black doesn’t crack.” She said with a smile. “What did you bring me?”

“Soup and sandwiches from Happy’s.”

“Tell me there’s tomato soup and warm cheese on ciabatta in that bag and I'm going to be your best friend.”

“Hi, bestie.”

“Let's go into the office.” Melinda got up from her desk. “I try not to eat in front of our guests.”

“I love that about you.”

Liv and Melinda went into the medical examiner’s office. There was paperwork everywhere, Melinda was shuffling things around so that she could have space on the desk for two to eat. This kind of mess wasn’t like her at all, she was neat and meticulous from her own military days and life in a military family. This was a mess.

“What happened in here?” Liv asked. She put the lunch bag on the desk, took off her coat, and sat down.

“These are Rudnick’s case files; what I've been spending my Saturdays doing. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time. You know how busy it is between Thanksgiving and Christmas here in the office and of course in our personal lives. My sister picked up a lot of the Thanksgiving slack but she has work to do as well. I'm going to be swamped into February, I'm sure.”

“I could help.”

“As if you don’t have enough on your plate. I'm actually going to grab some trusted people from downtown to work on fresh bodies so I can oversee them but do a lot of the work back here.”

“Do you regret taking their offer?” Liv asked.

She knew the city had gone to Melinda Warner with their tails between their legs. She could go anywhere in the country and be offered top dog positions. Not to mention working in the private sector, which was always more lucrative than working for the government. But they wanted her to stay, desperately, and apologized for overlooking her in the first place. Everyone knew that Deputy Chief M.E. job was as good as hers when the opening became available. 

From what Liv heard, Melinda had been mostly mum on the subject, she didn’t give a shit about their apology. There were a few concessions she wanted and must have gotten them since they were sitting across from each other right now. There wasn’t an M.E. in the city, or even the state, who wasn’t glad to have Melinda Warner mostly running the show. She was extremely popular amongst her brethren.

“It’s what I want to do. Do I want to clean up someone else’s mess; no that really isn't my style? But I speak for the dead and if someone was twisting their words than I have to fix it. I also don’t want to lose a bit of sleep worrying that innocent people could be in prison for things they didn’t do. It’s going to take a little while before I like my job again but that doesn’t mean I won't put 150% into it.”

“Always.” Liv smiled. She pulled her chicken noodle soup and French bread from the bag. It had been a while since she'd had a quiet lunch, and it didn’t get quieter than the morgue. “I wanted to let you know, if the invitation was still open, that Noah and I would love to join you guys for Christmas dinner this year.”

“Of course the invitation is still open. I was just talking to my mom last night and she asked about you. She wanted to know what she should get for Noah. She said grandmothers never show up empty handed.”

“Aw Melinda, she's the best.”

“Yes,” Melinda nodded. “She is. She’ll be glad to hear that you two will be there.”

“Actually, if it’s not too much of an inconvenience, would it be possible to bring someone with us this year? I would totally understand if you don’t have the room but if you do…”

“Of course. Who's it going to be? I know Barba is going skiing somewhere expensive; we talked about it the last time he was down here. Carisi’s family might be bigger than mine. 

“I can imagine you bringing Rollins but I don’t see her doing the “family” thing. And as hard as I try to understand, Fin spends his major holidays with his ex and her family. No one is ever going to get me to wrap my mind around that whole thing. Anyway, a guest would be fine.”

“It’s Ed.” Liv said.

“Ed who?”

“Ed,” Liv cleared her throat. “Ed Tucker.”

“Ed Tucker?” Melinda was confused but then recognition dawned on her. “Ed Tucker. IAB Ed Tucker?”

“Yes.”

“Oh…OK.”

“I know it’s strange, Melinda, and I don’t want anyone to be uncomfortable but I just don’t want him to be alone for the holidays. He has children but they always spend the day with their mother. He sees them on the 26th.”

“I didn’t know that you two were friends.” Melinda dipped her sandwich into her soup. “I mean I knew the raging inferno of hatred had toned down some but I didn’t realize you’d reached the spending holidays together stage of your…um, relationship. Is this a relationship?

“Can I be honest with you?” Liv asked. The question was mostly rhetorical; she already knew the answer.

“What's going on?”

“Do you remember in January when Amaro’s dad went on trial?”

“Yes.” Melinda nodded.

“Well IAB had to get involved because there was some concern that Nick could've said something to his dad’s fiancée to keep her from pressing charges. I defended him, I know he would never do something like that. Even though he's had his share of trouble over the years and clashes with IAB, Ed believed me. We met up to discuss it one night and he asked to buy me a drink. I accepted. Then in April, he was the one who came to me and told me 1PP didn’t want a sergeant running a squad and I was either going to have to take the lieutenant’s exam or lose SVU. He then revealed that he'd already told a few of the higher ups at 1PP that I was scheduled to take the next one.”

“You became a Lieutenant because of Tucker?”

“If he wouldn’t have given me that heads up I never would've seen Dodds coming.” Liv replied. “Then just a few weeks later we were dealing with Johnny D and Ed had my back. He believed me, and you, when we told him just when we found out about Noah’s paternity. And he didn’t rake Amaro over the coals on that shooting, which he could have whether it was justified or not. A few days after the adoption was finalized, he came to the precinct and brought a gift for Noah. I asked him out for brunch that Sunday…it was our first date.”

“Wow.” Melinda sipped her tea. “He's your type you know.”

“You're not the first person to say so.”

“Your squad knows?”

“No. Well Fin knows, we ran into him one night at a bar going to see one of the bands I enjoy play. He assured me that he had to tell Munch but no one else. It’s not technically against the rules; we don’t work together and he's not my immediate superior. I just never saw anything like this coming. If someone would've asked me or told me, I would've laughed in their face. What did you mean when you said Ed was my type.”

“Well, you and I have known each other a long time.” Melinda said. “I've seen a couple of men come and go.”

“Yeah.” Liv dragged the word out some. The few people who said that to her, she wanted to know what they meant. The last two had given almost the same answer. She was anxious to hear Melinda’s. The two women had known each other for many years.

“He's handsome, masculine, a bit rough around the edges, seemingly immovable to those who only know him through his work. I'm almost willing to bet he has one thing that the others didn’t.”

“What's that?” 

“A soft heart.” Melinda replied.

“How much you wanna bet?”

“Lunch…at one of the good places.”

“Melinda, he's…” Liv sighed. She didn’t want to gush even though she really did. She never got to talk to anyone about this and while they both said it wasn’t a dirty secret they also agreed that they deserved personal lives. “When he smiles I can't help but smile too. He has such a wicked sense of humor and he's a loving father. He and Noah, I can't believe how well they get along.”

“Is he romantic?” Melinda asked.

“Yes. And the sex…”

“Scale of one to ten?”

“Eight most of the time. He reads my body like he's known me forever.”

“He has, Liv.”

“What?”

“When did you first meet Tucker, 2003, 2004? He has known you forever.”

“We weren't exactly friends.” Liv reasoned.

“You think because you weren't friends that means he didn’t know you. You know I liked Elliot a lot but one of the reasons he and Tucker nearly came to blows every time they were in the same room is that Tucker knew him and called him on it without a second thought. I know you and he had many unpleasant encounters in the past but it never had quite the same vitriol behind it.”

“Oh, I hated him, believe me. We both agree that he can be a real son of a bitch when it comes to his job. We also agree that he has to be. But looking back, even on the bad cases, I can spot moments of concern with me…even tenderness. I even got him to admit that he might have gone too far with putting Brian undercover in the One-Two, and that was before we were a couple.”

“So this is getting pretty serious?”

“We’re, um, committed to making whatever this is going to be work. We have rules,” Liv laughed. “We do our best to separate work from personal, and we want to have our foundation nice and strong before too many people start finding out. Everyone is sure to have an opinion. The only one that matters is mine, Ed’s, and Noah’s.”

“It'll be interesting to see you stand up to the scrutiny.” Melinda said.

“The largest obstacles are no longer in the way.”

Though Liv didn’t elaborate and Melinda didn’t respond, they both knew what the other was saying. Even though Amaro had his fair share of run-ins with IAB and Liv had gotten very close to him while they worked together, he wasn’t what she was talking about. Stabler and Cragen were the biggest obstacles. But at least Don Cragen was a reasonable man, and he surely wouldn’t have invaded Olivia’s personal life even if he felt the need to give her some fatherly advice that she didn’t want. Stabler would've seen it as nothing short of a betrayal and made Liv’s life hell. 

Melinda had seen it happen before in little ways. She had no doubt that Elliot cared for Olivia, and out in the field he always had her back. But their personal relationship, or whatever they wanted to call it, had become toxic a couple of years before their professional one ended. While Melinda wasn’t happy with the way he just left things, she kept that to herself. Especially since she was just glad that Liv could live again. There was still plenty of hell for the job to put her through, and it had, but at least she didn’t have her partner, professional or otherwise, holding her head underwater as she struggled to breathe.

“I'm willing to listen if you want to talk about the sex.” Melinda said.

“I bet you are.” Liv laughed. “It’s just so wonderful. Every time we’re intimate, it’s fun or romantic or sexy as hell. I never feel like we have to or we should. He's a gentle man and he knows what I've been through. Our bodies work really well together; it’s a great feeling. I haven’t had that with anyone in a long time.”

“Was it that way with Brian?”

“No.” Liv shook her head. “I mean he was a decent guy…”

“You don’t have to defend him. I know that you cared about Brian deeply even when it stopped working. I look forward to spending the holidays with you, Ed, and Noah.”

“Thank you so much, Melinda. I really appreciate this.”

“We love having you. I'm glad that you and Ed are going to spend the holiday together, and be with people who aren’t going to ask a million questions. The holidays aren’t the time for those kinds of things.”

“Don’t act like your mom isn't going to interrogate Ed.” Liv said smiling.

“True.” Melinda smirked. “But it will be done out of nothing but love. And I’ll tell her to simmer down a bit. Alright, that break was just what I needed but it’s time to get back to work. These bodies won't examine themselves and all of this paperwork needs to be triple checked.”

“I meant it when I said that I would help. We could take a Saturday and just slay one of these boxes. I'm no pathologist but I've been hanging in this morgue long enough...I’ve picked up a few things.”

Liv started to clean up the remnants of their lunch. Soup and sandwiches really did hit the spot. Liv would use the energy to handle the mountain of paperwork waiting for her upstairs. There was still a lot of day left to go.

***

“Hello there.” Ed kissed her nose and then kissed her mouth again.

They'd been standing in her foyer for a few minutes just kissing. It had been two days since they'd seen each other. Liv was busy at work and so was Ed. They managed to talk on the phone for about a half hour last night. Ed worked late and was tired but he was glad to hear her voice. Having her in his arms was much better.

“Just tell me I have you all night.” Liv said. 

“Yes, Lieutenant.”

“Mmm,” she closed her eyes, leaning in for another passionate kiss. “That makes me happy.”

“Well that makes me happy.” Ed’s hands slipped down and cupped her ass.

“Have you eaten?”

“I did.” He nodded. “I want to go in and kiss Noah goodnight and then I'm ready to give you all of my attention, Liv.”

“I was just making something to eat…I had a long day.”

“I'm here to take your mind off all of that.”

“Well one good thing happened today?” wrapping her arms around his midsection, Liv just cuddled close and Ed held on tight. Neither had moved from that spot in the foyer. It was perfect for talking without too many diversions. If they sat on the couch, or God forbid went into the bedroom, the diversions would be overwhelming. “I talked to Melinda.”

“Did you?” Ed kissed the top of her head.

“She's looking forward to having the three of us over for Christmas dinner.”

“Yeah?”

“Mmm hmm. She's also the third person to tell me that you're my type.” Liv said.

“I'm not touching that.” he laughed some.

“That’s not what I want you to touch, Tucker.”

He tilted her chin up so he could give her another kiss. Damn, he really was a lucky man. This woman, this amazing woman, this more than amazing woman, cared about him. She might actually one day love him. She wanted to spend the holidays with him and had taken a calculated risk telling Melinda Warner about their relationship. 

Ed had always liked and respected the medical examiner. She was smart as hell and didn’t take any shit. She was honest, caring as well, but didn’t wear her emotions on her sleeve. That impressed him. 

Melinda and Liv had a lot in common but they were different in many ways as well. That didn’t seem to affect the close friendship they'd cultivated over the years. They were as close as Ed and Liv had been far apart. Now they were all going to be spending Christmas together. It was overwhelming…the good kind of overwhelming.

“I'm going to kiss Noah goodnight.” He said. “You get some dinner and we’ll meet back in 10 minutes. The living room or the bedroom?”

“We’ll relax on the couch, find a good movie on TV. Don’t lose that fire in your belly.” Liv touched his stomach for good measure.

“It’s not going anywhere, Liv, believe me.”

They finally moved out of each other’s arms, Liv toward the kitchen and Ed the nursery. There was left over salmon and mashed potatoes with broccoli from last night that would be just as good tonight. She'd pour a nice glass of Moscato for herself and a small glass of Maker’s Mark, which she now kept on her kitchen counter, for Ed. They would find something they both enjoyed on television as they cuddled on the couch. Then after the movie it would be straight to the bedroom. 

Liv wanted him tonight and was pretty sure the feeling was mutual but if all they did was cuddle she would be happy. Not seeing him the past couple of days made Liv long for him. She'd been looking forward to tonight since the last time he left right after the crack of dawn. Not tonight though, well not tomorrow. Ed could stay and sleep a little. He might be late for work but when she held him in the bed for an extra hour Liv didn’t think there would be much room for complaint.

***


End file.
